New Haven Independent

So is the scene described by the men pictured below as they came to City Hall to ask for street closures to facilitate New Haven’s summer blockbuster — the fourth, as yet unnamed, Indiana Jones film.

Aldermen Monday approved street closures for the riveting chase through downtown streets — and heard a preview of the plot of the movie to be shot in part in downtown New Haven in coming weeks.

In the New Haven-shot scenes, professor Ford gets pursued by bad guys in black sedans through the Yale campus, up to athletic fields, where he may just catch a football for a moment of lighthearted shtick.

Aldermen approved closing sections of downtown streets to make way for the chase, as well as for a pre-filming street festival celebrating Harrison Ford’s visit.

“Can we get autographs?” asked Newhallville Alderwoman Katrina Jones after the men described Ford’s escapades through the Elm City.

Filming will run June 28 to July 6, reported David Martin, location manager for Genre Project’s East Coast sector (pictured at right, with assistant location manager Jason Farrar). Most of the scenes, by Martin’s recounting, involve Ford’s motorcycle (with stunt man, no doubt) bursting through bucolic Yale spots.

Why New Haven? Because of “its great-looking university with great-looking architecture,” Martin said. The film will be set in 1957.

Chase footage starts on Chapel between College and High, where Uma Thurman could be seen running takes of a pedestrian accident for a film called In Bloom last summer. On Monday, Indiana Jones bursts through Yale’s Branford College courtyard on the motorcycle, continuing on through Saybrook College. Tuesday, he’ll head to a Yale baseball diamond off Derby Avenue, which has a tunnel running under it, according to Martin’s research.

“I’m sure they’re going to make it try to fly out of the tunnel,” Martin told the aldermen. Then Indy “steals a football from practice and uses it as a weapon,” he said. (Martin later elaborated the football throw was just an example of a possible moment of lighthearted comic relief, not a guarantee.) Thursday, the chase will hit downtown’s Wall Street, then Friday, it’ll fly by Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, on to Woolsey Hall, where the film crew hopes to stage the finale.

Ford bursts through Commons, which is set up to look like a study hall. “Books will be flying, students will be running.” If all goes as currently planned, a Sedan may flip over outside on Grove Street.

All the excitement will require about 500 extras, Martin said. (Look for announcements soon on where to audition.) Stores will be compensated for having to close business.

To prepare New Haveners for their impending date with Hollywood, the city plans to close Temple Street on the Green for a festival on June 26 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Festivities include projecting an Indy movie onto a screen on the Green, said Barbara Lamb, the city’s director of cultural affairs.